Happy 50th Anniversary Tiki Room!

Happy 50th Anniversary Tiki Room!

50 years ago today Disney cranked out the Tiki room. And it comes only second to that god awful Small World in terms of infectious songs that once they enter your ear, they won't ever leave your brain. But hey, unlike the small world, the tiki room offers a means to compensate for such infectious music in the form of enjoying a Dole Whip as you wait.

Also while you wait for the attraction is a brief history and run down of those South Pacific Gods and Goddesses.



So who are all these Gods? Since you learned about them pesky Nordic Gods for the release of Thor, learn some Hawaiian ones now.

Pele is the Hawaiian fire goddess and lives in the Kilauea volcano who likes to torment her neighbor.....

Ngendei from Fiji, he is the creator of all the gods. He's also got a big job as a balancer of the whole world. Seems a little odd since he's constantly drunk on Mai Tai's. But that pressure along side the torment he suffers from Pele is a pretty good reason why he drinks and causes earthquakes every now and then.

Maui is the Polynesian trickster who gave people time and roped the playful Sun.

Rongo is the Polynesian God of agriculture, also known as Lono in Hawaii. Who is the provider of food and discovered electricity.

Koro is the Midnight Dancer, under whose spell all the ladies and men learned to dance.

Tangaroa-ru is also know as Mapui-kaufanga in Maori tales and she is the goddess of the east winds, which bring rain

Hina Kaluua is the Hawaiian mistress of rain from Hilo, Hawaii. and keeps it in the family as her daughter Hina is the mother of the trickster, Maui. 

Tangaroa is the father of all gods and goddesses who took the form of a tree, though like a good Mormon, no one ever did see it. While these Tiki carvings were based on legends of the South Pacific, a few of our own Disney Legends worked on the Tiki gods you saw in the video and see when you visit the Enchanted Tiki Garden.  They were designed by Imagineers Marc Davis and Rolly Crump. The plaques and dialogue were written by Marty Sklar, who went on to become vice chairman and principal creative executive at Walt Disney Imagineering.